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Former President Trump now the First Former U.S. President to be Impeached Twice and Indicted Four Times on Various Charges, including the Election Subversion Case in Georgia; Zimbabwe Presidential Elections Went Peaceful, Counting of Votes is now Underway; Greece Grappling with the Wildfire as Winds Continue to Fan the Flames; Fulton County Jail now Structurally Unsafe; Meet the K-Pop Group with no Pure Korean members; Kim Kardashian's Daughter Now Uses Hair for Jump Rope. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 25, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, ahead on "CNN Newsroom."
He turned himself in and now he's free on bail. Donald Trump becomes the first former U.S. president to have a mugshot taken.
We're hearing from Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since the apparent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin. The Pentagon now says it believes the Wagner leader was targeted.
And wildfires raging in Greece as strong winds are fanning the flames. We'll go live to Athens for a live report.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: One term twice impeached former U.S. President Donald Trump has now racked up his fourth arrest in less than five months. This time in Fulton County, Georgia, booked, fingerprinted and photographed. It's the first ever mugshot of a former U.S. president. Trump is charged with more than a dozen felony counts stemming from his efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results. He is free on a $200,000 bail bond covered with a 10 percent payment to an Atlanta bonding company, according to sources.
The entire booking process took about 20 minutes. Then the former president headed to the airport just outside of Atlanta for his flight back to New Jersey. He railed against the charges in Georgia as well as federal charges of trying to subvert the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I really believe this is a very sad day for America. This should never happen. If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election. I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election, and I should have every right to do that. What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. And everybody knows it. I've never had such support. And that goes with the other ones, too. What they're doing is election interference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark has surrendered overnight along with former Coffee County Election Supervisor Misty Hampton, Georgia State Senator Sean Still, and former Trump campaign official Mike Roman. Three co-defendants have yet to turn themselves in.
More now on what comes next from CNN's Senior Legal Affairs correspondent Paula Reid.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA REID, CNN SR. LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Now that former President Trump has completed his surrender here at the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, the next time he'll have to return here to Georgia is for his arraignment.
The District Attorney Fani Willis has said she would like to do the arraignments for all 19 defendants the week of September 5th. Now in his federal cases, this all happened at once. He was processed and then he went before a judge to enter his plea. But here in Georgia, things happen at a slightly different pace.
Now after that initial week or two of arraignments, the defendants actually have a short window of time to file certain challenges to their case. Several defendants, including Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, they've already challenged their cases trying to get these state-level cases moved to federal court.
The former president has signaled that he will likely try to do the same. Rudy Giuliani may also try that move. So that process will take quite some time to play out. The next thing that's going to happen though is on Monday, there will be a hearing for Mark Meadows' effort to move this to federal court. We expect that the focus of that hearing is going to be that infamous call between former President Trump and former Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The District Attorney, Fani Willis, has dismissed any suggestion by Meadows that what he was doing was just part of his job as chief of staff and that this should be not prosecuted. Now, it'll be interesting to see what the judge does here, but if Meadows does not succeed, he will be back with the other defendants in Fulton County as this case proceeds, but for a RICO case of this size and complexity could take years for a final resolution.
Paula Reid, Fulton County, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: All right, for more on this, I'm joined by Ron Brownstein, who's CNN's senior political analyst and the senior editor for "The Atlantic," and he joins me now from Los Angeles. Good to see you again.
So Donald Trump said it, a sad day in America. On that, he's right.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Of course, he turned it upside down. You know, we've gone through all of American history without a president being indicted on criminal charges. Now we have a president who's been indicted four times on 91 separate criminal charges.
[03:05:00]
And perhaps even more ominously than the charges that are accumulating against Trump is the reaction to those charges within his party. I mean, as we talked about yesterday, the most striking moment in that debate was six of the eight candidates on stage saying they would vote for him, even if he is convicted of a serious crime before the election.
And that, I think, is, as I said, an ominous statement about the view in the Republican Party, both about his behavior, but also about the legitimacy of any institution in a jurisdiction that leans Democratic rendering a verdict on a Republican politician. I mean there's a form of soft secession in the rejection of that legitimacy and it's pretty ominous to see it displayed as dramatically as it was last night.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. And already Donald Trump is fundraising off his mugshot. I mean it may help him pay his legal bills, but will it help him win back the White House?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think, you know, we have established that there's a bifurcated process going on here. I mean, within the Republican primary, by and large, so far, this has worked out for him. I mean, he has convinced most Republican voters to see this the way he wants them to see it, that this is another way in which American society, the real victims of discrimination in a diversifying America, are white Christian conservatives.
And he has made this an extension of his argument, his core political argument from the outset. Now how this plays if he is the nominee in a general election could be a very different proposition. I mean there are multiple polls showing that most Americans out of the Republican coalition believe that he has committed a crime and that most Americans outside of the Republican coalition believe that if he is convicted of a crime he should not be president again.
So Republicans, you know, are reacting in one way but they are ignoring some yellow lights on the dashboard about how this might play in a general. election. BRUNHUBER: Yeah, you touched on the first GOP debate. I mean, you
know, two days ago, normally the candidates will be able to sort of dine on that and the media coverage for days. I mean, it's pretty much already forgotten. So for the party, I mean, we heard in the debate Ron DeSantis say directly that if the next election is about the insurrection Republicans could lose, but how will that be possible? I mean, is it more likely as one of our reporters put it that the defining moments of or more likely to happen in the courtroom than on the campaign trail?
BROWNSTEIN: It is possible. Look, if Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican Party, he is going to be competitive for the White House because we, you know, we are at an intense level of polarization, very few people switch sides from the team that they usually identify with, and we are a closely divided country.
Plus there's a lot of hesitation about giving Joe Biden another four years. Americans remain down on the economy, uneasy about inflation, and most people believe that he is too old to do this job for another four years. So all of that argues for a competitive race, no matter who the Republican nominee is. But Donald Trump fell seven million votes short last month. He is the one who has to expand his coalition.
And if you look at the way independent voters, as opposed to Republican voters, are responding to all of the legal challenges that are accumulating against him, it clearly raises the question of whether any of this is going to help him broaden the support that he had last time.
He can't forget he is the one who needs more votes if there is a rematch. And there's a lot of reason to think that while this would not crater his support, it would lower the ceiling at least somewhat and leave him in a more difficult position than he was last time.
BRUNHUBER: Alright, but let's go back to the primary. I mean, we saw the debate the other night, Trump's challengers, at least most of them, didn't attack Trump on his biggest liability, the legal cases against him. They're preferring to talk about the weaponization of justice. Will that have to change, do you think, if anyone really wants to challenge him or is that just a death sentence with Republican voters?
BROWNSTEIN: Look, they have to -- they have to formulate an argument as to why Republican voters should look past Trump. I mean, most Republican voters were satisfied with his presidency. Most of them think that he actually won in 2020. And as you say, most of them believe that the -- these are weaponized trumped up as it were charges against him. All of that is kind of powerful inertia for kind of defaulting to him as the nominee. And what we saw last night, was really an extension of what we've seen in the entire campaign.
None of these candidates have been willing to formulate a sharp case outside of Christie and Hutchison and hailing a little bit about why voters should look past Trump.
I mean you certainly get the sense that some of them, Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, may be running for vice president, may be running to be Trump's vice president.
[03:10:07]
I don't think that's the case with Ron DeSantis, but he has put himself pretty much in the position of saying, I can deliver the MAGA agenda better than he can. When he's criticized Trump, he's tried to run to his right. Not a lot of space there.
Ultimately, the issue of whether the Republican Party can win the White House back with so much time in 2024 in court, it seems to me would have to be part of an argument for anyone else. And yet, as you saw again last night, they have been very reluctant to do that.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. Listen, last question before we go. You know, you're talking about the candidates there, let's talk about the Republican voters. We got the viewing figures from the debate: almost 13 million people, you know, way short of the 24 million who watched the first Republican debate in August 2015, the last one in which Trump appeared. But given, you know, audience fragmentation since then and the fact that Trump wasn't there, it's still a lot more viewers than people expected. Does that suggest there is appetite for a non- Trump Republican alternative?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, he has support of about half the party, 55, on a good day. So that means there are, you know, there's, there's at least another half the part. And some of his voters would probably fall in the category of voters who are open to someone else. I mean, Whit Ayres, the veteran Republican pollster, kind of divides the Republican party into three pieces. 35 percent or so always Trump, 15 percent or so never Trump, and the other half, maybe Trump.
And I think there were a lot of maybe Trump voters who were watching last night, and they may have thought well of any of the individual candidates, but as we were just talking about a moment ago, he is polling at 50 or 55 percent, which means that some voters who are now saying they want to be with him are going to have to be convinced to make a different decision.
And I don't think anybody thought that we saw a sharply defined argument from anyone outside of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson who were on the periphery of the race about why they should do that from the stage last night. And that's still is the question: if they actually want to beat Trump, will they provide voters a better, clearer, sharper reason than they have so far to move away from him?
BRUNHUBER: That is the question. So much to happen between now and then. Always a pleasure to speak with you, Ron Brownstein in Los Angeles. Thanks so much.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me. Yup.
BRUNHUBER: A day after the apparent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Wagner boss a talented man who made serious mistakes. It's his first public comments about the doomed plane believed to be carrying Prigozhin. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): First of all, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. This is always a tragedy. Preliminary information suggests that Wagner employees were also onboard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Speaking in the past tense, the Russian president went on to say he'd known Prigozhin for a very long time and he was a man of difficult fate. Wednesday's plane crash happened two months after Prigozhin and his Wagner group staged a brief insurrection against Russia's military leaders. Putin pledged the criminal investigation into the crash would be thorough.
CNN's Katie Polglase joins me now live from London. Katie, still so many questions swirling. What more are we learning here?
KATIE POLGLASE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE PRODUCER: Well, we've learned that 10 people were on board this plane that crashed, all of them killed, including, reportedly, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Now, that is not confirmed, but yesterday, U.S. Defense Department said they think it is likely that he was on board the plane that crashed.
Russia says it's investigating the incident. We've seen bodies being taken away from the scene to be examined and investigated. But the key question really here is, why did it crash? We've been speaking with multiple aviation experts who told us quite simply that planes don't fall out of the sky. Something has to cause it to happen.
Now one of these experts was Professor Robert Schmucker. He is a global expert in this field. He also investigated the MH17 crash in 2014. He said, from looking at the visual evidence, looking at the videos of the crash, it appears the plane exploded in the sky rather than the damage being on impact with the ground.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials are saying they're seeing no indication it was hit with a missile, a surface-to-air missile, hitting the plane. They're looking at other possibilities, looking at, for example, an on-board explosive device. So, clearly, there needs to be an on-the- ground investigation.
But in the meantime, we've been looking at some of the visual evidence we found from social media, looking at the flight path online, to see what we can glean about the crash so far. Have a watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLGLASE (voice-over): Falling from the sky, the plane reported to be carrying the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. Coming two months after he launched a mutiny against Russia's leader Vladimir Putin, he was widely seen as a man on borrowed time.
As footage started to emerge on social media of the crash, CNN's open- source team began piecing together what happened. The aircraft associated with Prigozhin is RA-02795. It makes frequent trips between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
CNN geolocated the main crash site to here. And you can see the same tail number visible amid the debris. The plane had left Moscow at 5:55 p.m. local time. Twelve minutes later, the location is no longer detectable. But public flight tracking site Flight Radar 24 still receives information on its altitude.
(on-camera): The last minute of the recorded flight is key. You can see here the flight's altitude is erratic. It's going higher and lower before it eventually plummets. Now, aviation experts told us this is highly unusual, and it suggests those on board were trying to stabilize the plane after something happened to it. In other words, the destruction was not big enough to obliterate everyone and everything instantly.
(voice-over): Expert opinion is split on what exactly happened, likely an explosion, perhaps a bomb on board or a missile hitting it, or even something else.
Whatever it was, was clearly powerful as the plane is visibly falling without a wing.
The tail ends up over here, 2.6 kilometers away from where the rest of the debris lands.
Videos show fires at the crash site. Some are graphic. Human remains strewn amid the debris. Since then, Russian authorities have taken the bodies away for examination and begun an investigation. But many have already made up their minds as to who they think was behind the Wagner aircraft's violent end.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[03:15:00]
POLGLASE (on-camera): Now it's clear that an on the ground investigation would need cooperation not only from Russia but also from Brazil who are the makers of this plane and investigators would need access to the black box of the plane, all of which might be quite difficult to obtain.
But it's clear that in the meantime there is wide speculation in the international community as to who really is behind this incident. We heard yesterday from U.S. President Biden that he said there is not much in Russia that happens not without knowing of President Putin. And also, U.S. officials that CNN spoke with said that really this did not come as much of a surprise. It was really a question of if rather than when and that Prigozhin had been seen by many as a dead man walking. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right thanks so much Katie Polglase in London. I Appreciate it.
Well as we heard there, the U.S. believes that Yevgeny Prigozhin was likely killed in Wednesday's plane crash. Officials say they're evaluating a number of possible causes as to what brought the plane down including an for now. Here's the Pentagon spokesperson on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. PATRICK RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Our initial assessment is that it's likely. Prigozhin was killed. We're continuing to assess the situation. We don't have any information to indicate right now. The press reporting stating that there was some type of surface-to-air missile that took down the plane, that we assess that information to be inaccurate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Alright and joining me now is Steven Fish, professor of political science at U.C. Berkeley and author of the book "Democracy Derailed in Russia, the Failure of Open Politics." Thanks so much for being here with us.
So, we heard from Vladimir Putin for the first time talking about Yevgeny Prigozhin saying some fairly innocuous things about this man that he knew for a long time. What do you make of his reaction to this? What message is Putin sending? Does it hint at all? happened here?
DR. M. STEPHEN FISH, PROF. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, U.C. BERKELEY: Well, Putin is sending a message with shooting down Prigozhin's plane over Russia that nobody is safe if they defy him that the price of defying Putin is death and, even if the godfather seems to forgive you for a little while, in fact, at a time of his own choosing and in a place of his own choosing he will take you out. This is just the way this mafia regime works.
BRUNHUBER: So, I mean, if Putin was behind it, the fact that it was an airplane that was targeted has some symbolic significance in terms of the message it sends to the elites, right?
FISH: Yes, in fact, it's a very dramatic message, seeing an airplane falling out of the sky. What's more, keep in mind, Kim, that Russian elites love to get around on private jets. That's their favorite way of getting, of traveling around Russia and abroad as well. And to take a private jet out of the sky like this is to tell people that Putin will certainly target your mode of transportation if necessary to take you out, if you're disloyal to him.
BRUNHUBER: And historically, I mean, we know Putin likes his revenge served cold, but any delay in going after Prigozhin, I mean, that might have been tactical as well.
FISH: It probably was. He could have tried to take him out right after Prigozhin made the play for Moscow and mutinied. But, you know, acting like he'd forgiven Prigozhin, apparently he even had him in for a several hour conversation and spoke with him and made it look like he'd actually forgiven him.
But in fact, what this two-month delay probably allowed Putin to do was to lull Prigozhin into a false sense of security. To make him feel like he, in fact, had been forgiven and to encourage him, Prigozhin is very arrogant to begin with, to continue to maintain contacts with people who supported him.
Then Putin could monitor Prigozhin's conversations. He could monitor his communications with other members of the elite and kind of smoke out people who might be still on good terms with Prigozhin. So this, in fact, afforded Putin a lot of intelligence. That was very likely the case and probably one of the reasons why he waited.
BRUNHUBER: What more are you learning about the others who were on that flight and what impact that might have on Wagner itself going forward?
FISH: Well, it looks like pretty much the entire top level of the Wagner private military company, as it's called, was on board. Dmitry Utkin, who is one of the founders, along with Prigozhin, of the Wagner Group, he's the one who named the Wagner organization. In fact, he named it after Wagner because Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer.
And Utkin is a Nazi, pretty much the same way Prigozhin is. He was on board. Some of the other leaders at the top-level of Wagner were on board as well. So Putin has really decapitated the Wagner organization. What this means is the remnants of the organization are going to be dependent on the Russian state from now on.
[03:20:09]
So this was his way of taking out Wagner in a manner that really kind of eliminated any other top leaders in the organization.
BRUNHUBER: And finally, a senior U.S. official told CNN that the by the situation plans to keep piling pressure on Russia through additional sanctions, we've seen Russia's Ruble has been crumbling down to a new low recently. So in the context of all this in the death of Prigozhin, did you see any anymore cracks appearing politically due to the economy as well?
FISH: Well, in Russia, you know, the economy is slowly sinking. It's not happening all that quickly. And I'm told by people I know in Moscow that Moscow still looks good. But generally speaking, the economy is slowing down, it's starting to creek. The ruble has actually been declining recently.
And it makes a great deal of sense to keep the pressure on when it comes to sanctions, because let's remember, these sanctions have been very effective. they have denied Putin a great deal of the resources he needs to prosecute this war successfully it's also putting pressure on the Russian population. So it's possible that it will increase eventually popular discontent with this war these sanctions are magic but they are working and they're very much they're very worthwhile and worth continuing to pursue.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Listen, we appreciate all of your insights. Steven Fish, thanks so much.
FISH: My pleasure, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Ukraine says four Russian missiles and one drone were knocked out of the sky across the country overnight. The missiles reportedly targeted the southern city of Odessa. But on its end, Russia claims it destroyed more than 40 Ukrainian UAVs over Crimea Friday morning. That comes a day after Ukraine claimed a daring amphibious raid on the peninsula.
It says its special forces landed there Thursday morning, planting a Ukrainian flag and attacking Russian facilities. At least 30 Russian troops were reportedly killed with no losses among Ukrainians.
Meanwhile, the U.S. says it will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets in October. Now, it's still not clear how long they'll need to learn the skills, which takes U.S. pilots five to eight months. U.S. officials say they made the decision because European allies who will also train Ukrainians will reach their capacity at some point.
On Thursday, Norway became the third country pledging to donate F-16s to Ukraine. The promise came on Ukraine's Independence Day, which President Zelenskyy called the best news for the holiday.
All right. For more, Nada Bashir joins us from London. So Nada, Ukraine has been waiting a long time to be able to finally fly these F-16s, so take us through the timeline here.
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well the timeline is one that could take months as you mentioned that training is set to begin in October at the Morris Air National Guard Base in Arizona, but first these pilots and engineers are going to have to undergo English language training that is set to take place in Texas next month and that is in order to equip the pilots and engineers with the complex and specialized English that is needed to operate these fighter jets.
Now of course this is something that Ukraine has been waiting for months. It's unclear exactly how many pilots will be taking part in this training program. Pentagon officials say several pilots and dozens of maintenance engineers. This will be a significant boost. And as you mentioned that this isn't an independent project. The U.S. isn't going alone and they will be working closely in conjunction with their European allies. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYDER: The training provided by the United States will compliment the f-16 pilot and maintenance training that is already underway in Europe and further deepens our support for the f-16 training coalition led by Denmark and the Netherlands. Moving forward, we will remain in close consultation with the Danes, the Dutch, and other allies to ensure U.S. training compliments the broader coalition training effort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASHIR: Now earlier this week with Denmark and the Netherlands committed to sending those F-16s to Ukraine once that training is complete. And we know that the U.S. is in talks with other European allies who may potentially be able to also send F-16s to Ukraine. We've heard from the White House. President Biden spoke with President
Zelenskyy about this on Thursday. He assured President Zelenskyy of an expedited approval process once that training is complete. And the hope for Ukraine is that this could be a turning point. This could be a much needed boost for Ukraine's counteroffensive.
We've heard from the spokesperson of Ukraine's air force who has said the hope is that this will provide Ukraine an advantage in the skies and an edge in the occupied territories. But Ukraine's defense minister has also said this is a process that he expects could take a minimum of six months. And of course it isn't anticipated that the Ukrainian pilots will be able to operate these jets before the end of this year.
So that maybe be a blow to Ukraine's counter-offensive over the coming autumn and winter months. And of course, we've heard from Ukrainian officials saying already that it will be up to the instructors to determine when Ukraine's pilots are ready to operate the F-16s.
[03:25:16]
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. All right. Thanks so much. Nada Bashir. I Appreciate it.
Wildfires are surging in Greece once again and have firefighters rushing to beat back the flames. Just ahead, we'll go live to Greece for a closer look at the damage. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Officials in Zimbabwe have become counting the votes in a hotly-contested presidential and parliamentary election. Voting had been extended into a second day in the capital of Harare and two other provinces because of long delays blamed on paper ballot shortages. Despite the wait, some voters were determined to have their votes count. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE MURERWA, ZIMBABWE VOTER (through translator): I came in the morning at 7 a.m. and I'm still here. I have been drinking water since morning and some were collapsing because of hunger. I still don't understand what is happening here at all. It's my second time voting and I have never seen such a thing.
BEAUTY TEMBENI, ZIMBABWE VOTER: They are saying the papers haven't arrived. Then now they just gave us an update that the papers have arrived. But we didn't see any papers coming through. So now we are confused.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Observers say the election has been largely peaceful. The current president is seeking a second term. He'll need more than 50 percent of the votes to avoid a runoff election. Thousands took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Thursday as Argentina
grapples with an inflation rate of 113 percent. The protest comes about two months before October's general election. Demonstrators are demanding more social programs like soup kitchens to help people deal with rising costs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDUARDO BELLIBONI, LEADER, POLO OBRERO (through translator): There is a claim that we have been making about the grave social situation that is occurring in Argentina as a result of the inflationary process, the deterioration of salaries. Many go to soup kitchens even though they have jobs. This social situation is worsening and is being aggravated by the latest events.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Over the past week Argentina has been hit by a wave of looting. JP Morgan estimates inflation could hit 190 percent by the end of the year.
In Greece, authorities say they're dealing with a large resurgence of wildfires gripping parts of the country. Officials say strong winds stirred up fires north of Athens early Thursday morning. So right now, more than 250 firefighters are working to battle the flames, as residents in at least three areas were asked to evacuate their homes.
CNN correspondent Eleni Giokos is in Greece and has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what is left of one of the most beautiful hiking trails in the whole of Greece. I'm in Parnitha Mountain in Athens. It's known as the Lungs of Athens. It's an important carbon basin for the city.
[03:30:00]
I want to show you why it's called the Lungs of Athens. If you look out, you can see this thick black smoke towering over the city. But you also see a very densely populated area, not enough greenery. And this virgin forest was that one reprieve. Fires broke out here on Tuesday. It affected homes. Many homes were burned yesterday. The fire department are not giving us an exact number. They're still trying to assess the damage.
We also don't know how much of this forest has actually been burned. What we do know today is that the firefighters tell us that overnight it was a nightmare experience with many new blazes erupting across the mountain and of course with no air assistance that makes it all that much more difficult to put out the flames.
This morning many helicopters and planes towering above us. One of the helicopters can carry around 11 tons of water and working rapidly to try and put out the fire. You can see the wind has subsided somewhat but the fear is that once it starts again that will reignite some of the flames that are starting to just simmer at this stage. Now looking ahead, locals tell us they're very worried about potential flooding. during rainy season and landslides. That will be something that will come in the future.
But for now, this fire season for the whole of Greece has been absolutely catastrophic. We have seen hundreds of new fires erupting across the country in the last few days.
Eleni Joukas, Athens, Greece, for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Still ahead, Donald Trump is free on bond after a visit to the Fulton County jail in Atlanta. The former U.S. president reacts to his fourth arrest and first-ever mugshot that's coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
Donald Trump is back in New Jersey at this hour, free on $200,000 bond after his arrest in the Georgia election subversion case. The former U.S. president was fingerprinted and photographed in a 20-minute booking process.
Sources tell CNN Trump wanted to appear defiant in his mugshot and chose not to smile. It's the fourth time this year that Trump has turned himself in to face felony charges. He spoke with the conservative network "Newsmax" on his flight back to New Jersey describing his arrest.
[03:34:57]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Terrible experience. I came in. I was treated very nicely. But it is what it is. I took a mugshot, which I never heard the words mugshot. That wasn't being taught with at the Wharton School of Finance. And I have to go through a process. It's election interference. You know that better than anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark surrendered overnight along with three others. So that leaves three remaining co-defendants who have yet to surrender to authorities in Fulton County.
BRUNHUBER: All right for more on this I'm joined by David Katz. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney now criminal defense attorney and joins me from Los Angeles. Thanks so much for joining us here. So just a big picture what do you make of this unprecedented day?
DAVIC KATZ, FORMER U.S. ASSISTANT ATTORNEY: Well, it is really unprecedented. It's the fourth time. It's the first time that a president, former president has had to give a mugshot. And there was this kind of a ballyhoo thing that he was going to be treated just like everyone else. And I think that the district attorney in Fulton County kind of missed the ball on that. I think it would have been smarter if she'd have just had him come in an unusual way.
In other words, not having coming by video. They filled out ahead of time this fact sheet. They didn't even actually weigh him. They put down the weight before he showed up. They had the rap sheet that he doesn't have, of course, except he's got the three other accusations against him, two of them federally. But he doesn't have a normal rap sheet like that. So there was really no purpose in having him come there.
And I think that just in terms of the optics, Trump won the day. And I think that the D.A. and the people that she's working with have to really think that through, because he showed up in a caravan. He showed up like a visiting head of state.
Nothing was normal about it. They kicked the reporters out of there, whereas they normally have a press area. And so he got to play this all his own way. And I think that as they say, they need to think that through. Also, there's going to be a speedy trial, but not for him. Under Georgia law, one of the co-defendants, Cheseboro, asked for a speedy trial.
He'll get one. but not the others. I've said it from the beginning when I heard about this case a week and a half ago had been filed. It will not get to trial in my estimation against Trump before the November election. And I think right now it's actually helping him going toward the November election politically.
I think the case that really matters is the same one that I thought for a while, the one in DC, the one that's in federal court that's one against him solely. And I think that one could actually get the trial before the November election and the judge there federal judge is going to do everything possible I know this case is important because it can't be pardoned, but if somehow Trump gets back into office it's going to be a war of wills between him and state court Georgia and help hard himself on the federal cases I think they need to get moving with the federal case that really matters the one in Washington D.C., not take any excuses from him that he's not ready for some reason or these other are in the way and push that one in Washington D.C. federal court against just him.
BRUNHUBER: Alright, well let's go back to this Georgia case though. You mentioned a couple of defendants wanting a speedy trial here. I guess it would be to the advantage of the defendants to sever their cases and be tried individually. So, will we see, you know, 19 separate trials here?
KATZ: We're not going to see 19 separate trials, but I think what's going on tactically, Trump has very good lawyers, and he is paying them for once, is that he's going to get a preview. In other words, if Cheseboro goes to trial in the fall, as he says, the D.A. will have to put on her whole case. She won't have to put on everything, but Trump will get a great preview of the case, right?
And if there's yet another severed trial, he'll have a second preview of what awaits him. And then there's also the issue of seeing what the jury's like. It'll be a great preview, which a defense lawyer, and I'm a criminal defense lawyer now in federal court you don't usually get. And I think that this case is just, it also could be transferred to federal court. And if Trump has an opportunity for that, I think he'll take it. He has about another three or four weeks to make up his mind.
He can also see how that one goes. There's gonna be a hearing in federal court on Monday to see if Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff, and this five or six number official at the Justice Department, the one who tried to vault over the others and become acting head of the Justice Department, and issue a statement that there had been some monkey business with the election, and then Trump said, my Republican congressman will just take it from there.
That fellow, Jeffrey Clark, he and Mark Meadows are going to ask on Monday in an evidentiary hearing to have the case transferred to federal court, and then Trump will have to decide does he want to go to federal court. It would still be a state case, so it wouldn't be pardonable. It would still be a state case, but it would be very different.
[03:40:02]
And the calculation for Trump would be, would that judge really force him to a speedy trial along with the two others? So he may lay back and figure that there's so much delay. And I think that's one reason that we're hearing about Trump not paying the co-defendant's lawyers.
I think he doesn't want to financially enable them to do anything different from what he wants, which is that the 17 or 18 left, except the one or two who are getting a preview trial, he'll lay back, and 17 or 18 will be way too much to take on mass to a trial anytime before the November election.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, just so many twists and turns still to go here. I really appreciate your expertise. David Katz in Los Angeles, thanks so much.
KATZ: Great to be with you again, I really appreciate it.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Cheers.
So as we mentioned, Trump was booked at the Fulton County jail. Now it's a facility known for deplorable conditions, including inmate deaths, excessive force, and a prison population far above capacity. The jail has also been deemed structurally unsafe. CNN's Brian Todd has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The facility where Donald Trump and his co-defendants were summoned to surrender is nothing short of a hulking, sprawling nightmare, the Fulton County Jail. It is also known as Rice Street because of its address. The facility
opened in 1989 and almost from the moment it opened it became obsolete and overcrowded. Just last month the Justice Department announced an investigation into this facility because of allegations of quote "unsafe, unsanitary living conditions, excessive force and violence."
As for the overcrowding, the capacity of this facility is 2,688 inmates. As of April, according to the state of Georgia, it housed 3,221 inmates. According to various news reports, seven inmates died at the facility just this year. About 15 inmates died last year. And there was a notorious case of an inmate who passed away in his cell last September. 35-year-old Lashon Thompson.
The medical examiners and Lashon Thompson's family's attorneys say that he died of neglect, malnourishment, and other poor treatment. He was in the mental ward at that hospital. Most noteworthy about his case was that his body was found covered in lice, bed bugs, and other insects. Just horrible images released there.
Lashon Thompson's family's attorneys also released a photo of the conditions inside his cell that just showed absolutely deplorable conditions.
Now all over this jail there is grime, there is dirt, there are overflowing toilets. Another really horrible anecdote regarding this jail is that last year during a public meeting, law enforcement officers rolled into the meeting a wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was full of shanks that were made by the inmates by grabbing just chunks of crumbling walls in the facility and fashioning them into shanks to attack other inmates. That's how bad this facility got.
The Sheriff of Fulton County, Patrick Labatt, is completely admitting these conditions are horrible. He says he's welcoming the Justice Department's investigation, and Sheriff Labatt is requesting about $2 billion in county funds to build a new jail.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Alright, still to come, K-pop without K, we'll introduce you to the stars of a new multinational girl group trying to break the mold of Korean pop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): The obvious question, you're a K-pop group, there's no K, there's no Korean. Does it matter?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BRUNHUBER: All right, just in, officials in Hawaii have finally released some firm numbers of the missing in the wildfires. Maui County has just released a validated list of the names compiled by the FBI of 388 people who are still unaccounted for. Officials are also reporting that in addition, 1,732 individuals who were originally reported as missing have been found safe and well.
Officials are asking people to tell police about anyone who's still missing and whose name isn't on the list.
And Maui County is also formally accusing local utility companies of inaction that caused loss of life. On Thursday, Maui County filed a lawsuit alleging that Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries caused the fires by ignoring warnings from the National Weather Service about high winds that could knock down power lines. And it says, when the fire started on August 8th, the companies didn't power down their equipment in the area.
At least 115 people were killed. A spokesperson from Hawaii Electric says CNN -- tells CNN, disappointed that the county chose to file a lawsuit while the investigation is still unfolding.
Japan says it's strongly requesting that China reverse its ban on all imports of Japanese seafood. China made the move on Thursday after Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Beijing says it's necessary to protect the health of Chinese consumers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANG WENBIN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION, CHINESE FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY (through translator): The disposal of the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water is a major issue of nuclear safety. Its impact goes beyond Japan's borders and the issue is by no means a private matter for Japan. The ocean belongs to all humanity. To forcibly start an ocean discharge is an extremely selfish and irresponsible act in disregard of the global public interest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The Fukushima plant was damaged during the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Japan says it needs to discharge the water to free up storage space at the power plant. It says the released water meets international safety standards.
Pakistan is still in need of urgent support one year after catastrophic flooding. Last year's monsoon season killed hundreds of people, destroyed millions of homes, and wiped out entire farms.
At one point, nearly one-third of Pakistan was underwater. One year later, UNICEF warns that millions still don't have access to essential services. According to the U.N., some eight million people are still without safe water, and more than 1.5 million children in need of nutrition intervention. The floods damaged and destroyed vital infrastructure including 30,000 schools, 2,000 health facilities and 4,300 water systems. UNICEF is calling on the Pakistani government and others to increase investment in basic services for children and families.
Now also in Pakistan the expert zipliners who rushed to help rescue eight people stuck in a dangling cable car earlier this week are being honored. They were presented with awards at a ceremony in Islamabad Thursday. The zipliners were called to carefully swoop in, bringing six children and two adults to safety after a 14-hour ordeal. The gondola was left swaying above a rocky ravine on Tuesday after a cable snapped. One of the rescuers described the challenges he faced. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUHAMMAD ALI SWATI, RESCUER (through translator): The most significant obstacle we encountered was the absence of light. The wind pressure was also quite high. In the valley, you can't feel it. But when you go high, wind pressure is significant. So darkness and the wind pressure were the key challenges for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Military helicopters also played a role in the rescues. Both the owner and operator of the cable car have now been arrested on charges including reckless driving and negligent operation of machinery.
Well, there's a new K-pop band performing in South Korea, but this group has a twist. None of the members are actually Korean. Paula Hancock says the story from Seoul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Water Bomb 2023, a K-pop concert in the heart of Seoul where staying dry is not an option.
And a key gig for Black Swan, a K-pop band with no Korean members. They're not the first to try it, but Black Swan are hoping they will be the act to break through.
(on-camera): So I'm in the obvious question, you're a K-pop group, there's no K, there's no Korean. Does it matter?
[03:50:02]
FATOU, MEMBER BLACK SWAN: Actually, there is K because we sing in Korean and K-pop is Korean pop. So as long as the language is there, it is still K-pop.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Singing in Korean, Black Swan members say they also draw on influences from each of their cultures. Their recent song Karma was filmed in India where band member Sriya is from. The music video MV has been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube.
SRIYA, MEMBER, BLACK SWAN: It has been really, really great because it's the first ever MV to be shot in India and also it shows like a proper Indian culture, Indian dresses, outfits and then the dance. HANCOCKS (voice-over): Black Swan members are also from Brazil,
Senegal and the United States. A global band for a global movement, the band says.
FATOU: And if they see us, like we're all different colors, different backgrounds, cultures, and if they see us achieve it, it's going to put more fire underneath, behind them.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): One difference, the members did not start as young teenagers, undergoing brutal K-pop training as other young hopefuls do. Two members only signed up two years ago.
YOON DEUNG-RYONG, CEO OF D.R. MANAGEMENT (through translator): There are usually four to five years of training period as they need to learn the language dance moves singing. Even though they're being trained within the K-pop system, we need to respect the cultures of these members and we can't just tell them what to do.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The group says training was still tough, but what about the Korean public reaction to this different brand of K- pop?
UNKNOWN (through translator): There are other famous bands such as Twice and IZ-ONE who are considered K-pop bands even though they have foreign members from Japan and elsewhere.
UNKNOWN: It's more like a mindset for me that K-pop is not just because you're Korean and making music in South Korea.
UNKNOWN (through translator): As there are no Koreans in the group, I've always looked at the group with doubts about them being K-pop, although they technically are.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): A number of non-Korean K-pop groups have emerged over recent years.
LEE GYU-TAG, ASSOCIATE PROF., CULTURAL STUDIES, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY KOREA: I believe there may be a possibility to have, let's say, American k-pop, British k-pop, or Japanese k-pop, why not? But it may also make k-pop lose their identity as a k-pop.
BLACKSWAN, K-POP GROUP: Be Unique! (translated) Hello, this is Blackswan!
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Four astronauts have to wait another day to get to the International Space Station. Ahead, why the joint SpaceX-NASA mission was postponed 24 hours.
Also ahead, CNN's Jeanne Moos shows us how Kim Kardashian turned her daughter into a modern-day Rapunzel in the name of exercise. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Football's world governing body has opened disciplinary proceedings against the president of the Spanish Football Federation. This comes after video showed Luis Rubiales forcibly kissing a player on the lips following Spain's World Cup victory. FIFA says he may have violated rules that deal with offensive behavior.
Spain's Women's Soccer League has also filed an official complaint with the Spanish High Council of Sport. Rubiales has since apologized, saying he made a mistake.
The joint SpaceX-NASA mission to the International Space Station has been postponed. NASA says unresolved technical issues caused the delay. The new target launch is scheduled for Saturday at 3.27 a.m. Eastern Time. The SpaceX Dragon capsule is set to carry four astronauts to the International Space Station. The latest forecast shows favorable weather conditions for the new launch time.
[03:55:03]
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against refugees in its hiring practices. According to the suit, Elon Musk's rocket company falsely claimed in job postings that export laws barred them from hiring asylum seekers or refugees. The DOJ says SpaceX only considered candidates who were green card holders and U.S. citizens. While there are some specific laws that limit foreign nationals from accessing key information about space vehicles, the DOJ says that doesn't prevent SpaceX from hiring refugees. SpaceX hasn't commented so far on the lawsuit.
All right. finally this hour. Kim Kardashian and her 10-year old daughter are giving new meaning to the phrase, playing with your hair. Move over Rapunzel, they're using North's own braids to jump rope. Jeanne Moos reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Kim Kardashian's kid North headed to the Far East, Japan, mom and daughter started posting videos like this. Featuring 10-year-old North's extensive hair extensions. They even posted photos of North walking with her friend, carrying North's coiled braids. Things got even hairier. Why settle for just jumping rope?
When you can jump rope using her daughter's braid still attached to her head.
Kim and North titled this TikTok video, Rapunzel, Rapunzel, jump through my hair.
Rapunzel used her hair to tie up the prince and swing like Tarzan did from Vines.
The Kardashians stuck to jumping rope, but they weren't the first.
This World Wrestling Entertainment star used her own braid as a jump rope.
Be afraid of this braid. Her opponents yank it at their own risk.
Bianca even whips them with her braid. Sort of makes using a braid to jump ropes seem like child's play.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And that wraps this hour of our coverage. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo after the short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
